Maharashtra added 2,608 new cases and 60 Covid-19 deaths Saturday, taking the total positive count to 47,190 cases and 1,577 deaths until now. This was the state’s second-highest one-day figure after Friday, when it reported 2,940 infections. Similarly, Mumbai reported 1,566 new corona cases and 40 deaths in the last 24 hours, taking its total to 28,817 and 949 deaths.

Forty of 60 deaths were recorded in Mumbai, 14 in Pune, two in Solapur and one each in Vasai-Virar,Satara,Thane and Nanded city. “Forty-two of 60 deaths were reported in the last 24 hours, while 18 are from the last fortnight,” said Dr Pradip Awate, state surveillance officer.

Dr Daksha Shah, deputy executive health officer said more than 1,000 asympto­matic patients in the city are in their homes and peo­ple should refrain from fear­-driven testing. “One has to get tested only if he or she has symptoms. Otherwise, they should simply focus on isolation,” she said. The BMC on Friday discharged 396 pa­tients, and altogether 7,476 patients have recovered and gone home so far.

On Saturday, 33 cases and one death were reported in Dharavi, taking the cumulative to 1,514 cases, including 57 deaths.

The number of COVID-19 patients in Mumbai is doubling over a period of 14 days, Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray said on Saturday as he interacted with doctors of BMC-run hospitals.

Currently, 5,392 covid patients are admitted to the DCH and DCHC centres, followed by 583 patients are admitted to Intensive Care Unit, 198 patients are kept on ventilators support and 3,658 are admitted to CCC2 centres.

Health officials have estimated that in the next six months, only 0.5 per cent of the total population will be infected in Maharashtra. "We will have to wait for the monsoon to see how Covid-19 fares in the presence of other viruses," said Dr Awate.

Of the 3,48,026 laboratory samples, of which 1,64,671 samples are from Mumbai. Currently, 4,85,623 people are in home quarantine and 33,545 people are in institutional quarantine. So far, 13,404 have recovered and been discharged.